Cimarron was settled in 1841, and became an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail 20 years later. It is a historic place, not a ghosttown, but we include it here because it is a part of the lives of two of New Mexico's most important people, Kit Carson and Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell. Carson came to New Mexico in 1826 and started a ranch on Rayado Creek in 1845 when he was only 26 years old. Lucien Maxwell came four years later to build a ranch near his friend Carson. Maxwell had married Luz Beaubien, daughter of wealthy landowner Carlos Beaubien, in 1842.

Beaubien was one of the holders of the enourmous Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant. Maxwell eventually bought out Miranda's share of the grant and inherited the other half, becoming in the process the owner of the largest single tract of land ever possessed by one man in the history of the United States - over 1.7 Millions Acres. Maxwell moved from Rayado to Cimarron in the late 1850 and was the first postmaster there. Maxwell sold his land empire in 1869, retiring to Fort Sumner, where he died in 1875.

The St. James Hotel, once run by famous chef Henry Lambert.

The three-story gray stone grist mill, built in 1864 by Lucien Maxwell, is now a museum.